Finally Home

35. Jenna

Samantha's recovery can only be described as a miracle.

The night she woke up, she recognized all of us.

"Mom?" She asked, lying still, her body weak from not moving for a month.

"Yes baby?" I asked, through tears that continued falling.

"What happened?"

"You and Dad were in an accident. You were hit by a truck. You've been in a coma for a month. Me and Dad and Uncle Josh and Aunt Debby have been by your side since."

Sam nodded as if to say 'okay. That makes sense.'

She still had a long road ahead of her and it was a couple of weeks still before we could take her home. The hospital transferred her to Nationwide Children's two days after she woke up. She asked for Tyler to ride with her in the ambulance.

Tyler's mood improved slowly. He still kept blaming himself but Samantha kept trying to reassure him she didn't blame him. Hearing it from Samantha was helping. He still met with the psychiatrist while we were in Cleveland. By the time we were able to take Samantha back to Columbus, he was smiling again.

Tyler rode with Samantha in the transport ambulance back to Columbus. Debby and Josh helped me pack up the hotel room and load everything into our cars. We settled the bill
With the hotel. They were very kind and wished Samantha well.

As we got Samantha settled at Nationwide, she and Tyler were chatting. Tyler was so much more animated. Samantha struggled a little with concentration, and would occasionally fall asleep in the middle of a conversation, but her doctors told us her brain was still recovering.

MRIs showed a small amount of damage in her temporal lobe. The doctors weren't too concerned about it but told us what we might expect and that some might be permanent. Samantha would break down and start crying for no reason sometimes. She had some trouble remembering words for things. We also noticed she seemed to have trouble hearing sometimes. 

She had CT scans and MRIs looking at the structures of her ears to see if there was damage to her ear or if there was some brain damage that was causing it.

But amazingly, she continued to quickly improve. Erin brought Jill by almost every day and Samantha's  basketball team and coach came by to visit frequently.

"The coaching position is still yours when you're able to come back to school," her coach said. Sam smiled and thanked her.

Samantha had few memories of the accident. She remembered seeing a bright light but that was it. She didn't remember the game. Or playing basketball with the Cavs and the Raptors.

Kevin Love and a couple of the Cavs drove down to Columbus a couple of times to visit Samantha. She was beside herself when they visited.

Since she was conscious, she was determined to catch up to her classmates and insisted on us getting her a tutor. So, we contacted her old tutor, Ms. Heron.

"Samantha," she said coming into Samantha's hospital room on the Monday.

"Hi," Samantha said.

"You remember Ms. Heron, right?" I asked her.

"Yes Mom, I remember Ms. Heron," Sam rolled her eyes.

Ms Heron, and I had been in contact with the school to help get Samantha caught up.

She struggled some with some processing and worked slower than she had in the past. When she got too frustrated, we stopped the lesson for the day.

Once Ms Heron left, Tyler was right by her side again.

"Sam, I'm so, so sorry about all of this," he said.

Sam looked at him and her eyes flared with anger.

"Dad, it was an accident. Stop apologizing. It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong!" Samantha had a bit of a temper right now.

"Hey, Sam," I said. "I have an idea."

"What?"

"Let's surprise Uncle B and Sarah with a FaceTime call," I suggested. Her face lit up.

I dialled Brendon's number and hit video. He answered almost right away.

"Jenna. Is Sam okay?"

"Hi Uncle B!" Sam said, waving into the camera.

"There's my beautiful girl!" He smiled. "Hang on, let me go into the house. Sarah's inside. I'm just out in my studio."

We watched as he literally ran out the door and through his back yard.

"Sarah! Come here!" He called as he went into his house.

"What's up?" She said, coming into the frame as Brendon set his phone against something on their kitchen table.

"Oh," she said looking at the screen. "Hey there sweet girl! How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," Sam said, smiling. "Working hard in physio."

"Good stuff!" Brendon said.

I let them talk for a little while until I could see Sam was tiring.

"Sam's still working on her stamina and I think it's time for a nap," I said.

"Mooom!" Sam protested. "I'm not a baby!"

"No. You aren't. But you're recovering from a really serious accident. And you need to rest."

"Sam," Brendon said. "Go take a nap and give us a call when it's closer to your dinner time, okay?  We'll be here."

"Okay," Sam acquiesced.  We signed off and I pulled the covers up around Sam's shoulders.

"Do I have to take a nap?" Sam asked, as she yawned.

"You tell me," I laughed. She smiled and dozed off. 

Tyler came in with coffee.

"She's sleeping?" He asked.

"Just dozed off," I whispered. "She was talking to B and Sarah and I could see her getting tired. She's going to nap for a little while. Do you want to go home to rest for a little while, too?"

Tyler shook his head.

"I'm feeling okay. I want to be here with her."

I smiled at him. He was doing so much better now that Sam was awake.

She would have another physio appointment later in the afternoon. For now they were working on arm strength because of Sam's broken leg and her already broken ankle. She was in a wheelchair right now because she didn't have the strength to use crutches.

But she was working so hard to regain her strength.